Old-Fashioned Sugar Cookies

Old-Fashioned Sugar Cookies - made dough November 21, 2015 from The Domestic Rebel

With Christmas bearing down on us, it’s also the season of sugar cookies. I don’t do a lot (or any) dessert decorating and I’ve never been good enough at cookie decorating to make fancy-looking sugar cookies with royal icing in various colors, sparkly edible glitter or intricate piping. Those pretty snowflake cookies piped to look like snowflakes? Yeah, those are unlikely to emerge from my kitchen.

But I do like sugar cookies in general and they don’t have to be fancy, just tasty. Like these were. At first I was a bit skeptical about the recipe since it contains oil and you know I’m a butter girl. But I’m pragmatic enough to know oil adds a light crispiness to cookies that butter has a harder time achieving. Plus oil helps the cookies keep their shape better.

Although the dough was soft enough after I had mixed it that it gave me pause on whether these cookies would spread like errant spaghetti sauce on your new white blouse (I know all about that). I had to chill it before I could even scoop it into dough balls and freeze them. Good thing that’s what the directions said to do or I might’ve despaired in one of my more dramatic moments. If you can be dramatic about cookie dough. (Why, yes I can.)

Anyway, after I froze them overnight, I rolled the frozen dough balls (do not thaw!) in a shallow bowl containing a mixture of red sanding sugar and white sparkling sugar. Yes, that’s the closest I get to fancy cookie decorating for Christmas: red and white sugars for rolling. Don’t judge me too harshly because these cookies were fantastic. Fantastic, I tell you. Just the right level of airiness and crispness at the edges yet soft and chewy in the middle with terrific vanilla and butter flavor. Super yum. They may not be the fanciest cookies this holiday but bet you can’t eat just one.

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

1 cup oil
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 eggs
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon salt
4 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
additional granulated sugar, for rolling cookies

1. In a large bowl of a stand mixer, beat together the butter, oil, sugar, powdered sugar, vanilla and eggs until creamed and combined, about 2 minutes.
2. Add in the baking soda, cream of tartar, salt and flour; gently mix until a soft dough forms. Chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Portion out golf-ball-size dough balls and roll in the additional sugar to coat. Place 2 inches apart on the baking sheets.
4. Bake for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Do not overbake. Cool on the cookie sheets for several minutes before moving to wire racks to cool completely.